Love
by AllUNeedIsFaith
Summary: Illyria is going on a hunt to find out what exactly love is. COMPLETE
1. A Brooding Angel

"I love you." A surprised Angel looked up at Illyria who was pacing in front of his desk, completely ignoring him. He studied her as she paced some more and then gave up and bent his head back over the paperwork., trying to fill out the forms that Gunn had insisted they incorporate into the system to organize themselves better. It was probably something included in the brain upgrade from the W&H offices.

"I luh-ove you." Illyria said again, as if taking her mouth on a test drive. This time Angel only glanced up at her before back down at his work.

"I love yuh-ou." Illyria said again, trying to put emphasis on another section of the sentence and this time Angel put the pen down and gave his full attention to Illyria who continued to pace and put emphasis on different parts of the sentence. Eventually he got to the maximum of his capacity of hearing 'I love you' a certain amount of times.

"Illyria," Angel said, stopping her in mid pace, "What are you doing?" He asked and she looked at him, frozen, before deciding to answer him.

"I was practicing saying 'I love you'." Illyria said in a self explanatory tone of voice and Angel refrained from rolling his eyes and saying 'duh'.

"I know, but why?" He kept prodding and she started pacing in front of him again, as if searching for an explanation.

"Why is love treated so highly?" She asked and Angel sighed heavily. It was, once again, time to explain to Illyria a concept that wasn't something you couldn't explain.

"Love is everything for some people." He said, knowing what would come next.

"But not for all. Still it is revered as the most important emotion of the human emotions." Illyria pressed him and he sighed heavily again. Having learnt the occasional polite tips here and there from Gunn and Connor (not really the experts on politeness) she decided to specify her topic, "What did love mean to you? Who did you love?" Unknowingly she'd made it worse for Angel but he didn't say anything, just tried to organize his thoughts so that he could present them to the ever curious Illyria.

He leaned back in the cheap factory chair and cracked his knuckles, as if he was getting ready for an up hill battle. Which this was going to be. Big time.

"Love was the thing that brought me out of the gutters, if it wasn't for love I'd still be feeding on rats in New York. Love isn't something that is defined so easily. Love is what can be the only thing that some people hold on for at time, and what can cause them to let go. You're always worried that they're going to be stolen away from you or that you're going to lose them so much that it hurts you beyond words."

"Then why do people just not fall in love if it is so painful?"

"Because, when you meet someone you love you have so many feelings, you soar every time you see them and they look at you. Any time that they say something to you, you feel that your heart is going to burst and your vocal chords are going to seize up because you can't believe that this person is talking to you."

"I still don't see the up side of love." Illyria said stubbornly and Angel was just about to bring out the big guns. Then she continued, "Who did you love?" Then that was it, the big guns were drawn and ready for firing.

"Buffy Summers. The vampire slayer. So unattainable to everyone else except for her closest friends and… me." Angel began and Illyria was about to interrupt when she saw the look on his face. Love. Remembrance. And so he continued, "Everyone from the outside looking in everything was fine. But I knew this girl since her she first found her destiny. And I knew what was hidden behind those eyes."

"What was it?" Illyria asked, completely enraptured by the vampire with a soul.

"Pain. Detachment. The realisation that she was different."


	2. A Bewildered Connor

AN: Deciding that was a weird place to leave it I'm coming back with a second chapter. More on the idea of love coming from Connor. That should be fun. BTW: This is based after 'Not Fade Away', Wes, Lorne and unfortunately Spike are gone.

"What is love and what has been your past experience?" Illyria asked in such a manner that you would expect it from an official taking a poll. Connor looked up from the old, well thumbed copy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which had secretly become his favourite book after they read it for high school in sophomore year. He had a look of bewilderment on his face.

Illyria was standing just inside the door to his room, having given up on Angel who had taken to brooding downstairs about love and Buffy. This was induced by Illyria and her questioning of course but she couldn't get anything out of him after he'd confessed what he'd seen in Buffy's eyes. He was off in broody land.

"What?" He said and then after getting a look from a passing Gunn revised that to say, "Pardon?" But with the same facial expression so it didn't make much of a difference especially to Illyria who was wanting an answer.

"Did you know hear me?" Illyria asked and Connor looked at her for a second before answering.

"Yes, I heard you. I just didn't understand you."

"It is a simple concept." Illyria said and Connor just looked at her. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and Illyria began explaining herself, "After asking Angel the same question I got a an answer but then he went off into quietness and I want to know more about love. So, what is love and what has been your past experience?" Connor blinked and then started hesitantly.

"Uh, love. Love is an emotion." He said and Illyria just looked at him, expecting him to continue and he just sighed and did so.

"Love is something that can make us forget who we are and what we know. A person in love's home is with the person that they love." Connor said, finally letting rip. Illyria looked at him expectantly and he shrugged, "I don't have any experience."

"You must have experience." Illyria insisted and Connor sighed heavily.

"I did go out with this girl last year. But she had to move to New York."

"Was it love?" Illyria demanded and Connor shrugged.

"Well did you say it?" She asked and he shrugged and she glared at him so he answered.

"Yes…"

"Well that means it was love." Illyria came to a conclusion.

"Not really…" Connor trailed off and Illyria glared at him for having the nerve to disagree with her theory.

"Well then why did you lie?" She asked and he just shrugged. She huffed., "Very well then. Perhaps someone else can help me who doesn't ignore me or knows nothing."

At the 'knows nothing' Connor opened his mouth to disagree at her summation of him but just gave up and sat back on his bed. She left the room and he just stared after her before shrugging and going back to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Then after a minute he put down the book, he'd been attempting to read the same page five times but he couldn't concentrate. He was thinking about what Illyria had questioned about why he lied.

TBC

Illyria so far has captured two victims, just one to go. An unsuspecting Gunn.


	3. An Insightful Gunn

AN: Just if you're curious this whole story has, and will, take place in the hotel. This is my short n sweet ending. P

Gunn stood in the lobby eating take out on the table. He was polishing off what was left of the Thai take out when Illyria came down looking annoyed. He saw her in Connor's room and felt sorry for the boy, she was really pouncing on him although the boy didn't know it yet when Gunn passed him.

"Hey wassup Illyria." He called out with a mouth half full of egg noddles. She looked at him and then the annoyance disappeared and she headed for him with this cool, official expression on her face.

"Good evening Mr Gunn. What is love and what has been your past experience?" Illyria said in an almost monotonic tone and Gunn just blinked and chewed hesitantly. Illyria looked at him with an almost 'sweet' expression and he swallowed hard. There was a definite predator undertone here and Gunn knew who the predator was. And it certainly wasn't him.

"Uh… Love is a complicated thing. It's confusing and contradicting and bewildering. No one knows what it is, no one can explain it and there's no way to tell when you're going to fall in love. People who are in love don't know it because of there are symptoms or because they go to a doctor or because it's defined in a dictionary. They just know. No one can describe it for another person. Everyone has their own little way of relating to it that no one else can understand. We may have a word for it but there's no meaning for it that any group of people can agree to. So I'm not going to try to. All I can say is: Love is what you make it." Gunn said and for once Illyria was left speechless and she just looked at Gunn with her mouth slightly open.

"That was," Illyria began, taken away by his definition, and then regained her composure, "Very helpful Mr Gunn."


End file.
